Global insurgency for change

From SourceWatch
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The term global insurgency for change was first introduced by Gary Payne in the 24 October 2003 article for americas.org, titled "Bolivia and the New Global Community of Insurgents" wherein:

Something unforeseen is happening in the Americas, and perhaps across the world. A new, unofficial coalition of exploited peoples and exploited nations is becoming self aware. Despite cultural and geographical differences, they are aware of each other's problems, and they are aware of the common threads in the economic and political tapestry that they feel is smothering them. It appears to be the beginning of a global insurgency for change.
Bolivia is only part of a larger story. A wave of self-determination is washing across the entire landscape of the Americas. It was evident when Peruvians rejected corrupt President Fujimori three years ago. It was and still is evident in the resolve of Venezuelans to maintain democratically elected President Chávez, who was almost overthrown last year in a short-lived coup. The wave of self-determination is evident in grassroots support of President Lula in Brazil. And most recently it's been on display in Argentina, where a newly elected president has stood his ground with the IMF.
Last month in Cancún, Mexico, the World Trade Organization met with an unprecedented and unexpected rebellion by representatives of developing nations. Pushed to the wall together, they discovered their collective arms and pushed back. Meanwhile, these nations have been watching each other, learning from each other. Now, they are beginning to help each other. Stay tuned.

An international movement to oppose world domination met in Brussels on November 17 – 18, 2005. They were invited by Voltaire Network to attend the first Axis for Peace International Conference. [1]

The "force behind a huge new movement we don't even have a name for yet, a movement that's not a left opposed to a right, but perhaps a below against above, little against big, local and decentralized against consolidated. If we could throw out the old definitions, we could recognize where the new alliances lie; and those alliances -- of small farmers, of factory workers, of environmentalists, of the poor, of the indigenous, of the just, of the farseeing -- could be extraordinarily powerful against the forces of corporate profit and institutional violence. Left and right are terms for where the radicals and conservatives sat in the French National Assembly after the French Revolution. We're not in that world anymore, let alone that seating arrangement. We're in one that for all its ruins and poisons and legacies is utterly new. Anti-globalization activists say, 'Another world is possible.' It is not only possible, it is inevitable; and we need to participate in shaping it." -- Rebecca Solnit [2],[3],[4]

It is widely acknowledged that the Group of 22 is symptomatic of a newfound self-confidence among developing nations. As a measure of this, Brazil, India, and South Africa announced here last week that they would form a "trilateral commission" to encourage cooperation on issues such as hunger, health, and poverty eradication. "These countries are the core of the G-22," says Pasha. "Their intent is to show solidarity among the larger developing countries - and ultimately to introduce some balance on a wide range of international questions."[5]

International opposition to corporate globalization has been greatly strengthened by the annual World Social Forums, which provide an open space for free-thinking organizations and individuals from around the world to come together to discuss and network around issues confronting the developing world, such as globalization, patriarchy, and militarism, in order to foster capacity-building and mobilization of local movements.[6]

In Ecuador, "the tribes owe much of their effectiveness to American environmental groups like Amazon Watch, the Pachamama Alliance and Earthrights International, which help organize protests, supply airplanes and set up meetings with American legislators." [7], [8]

"Political developments in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia represent real change. this change is not marked by who is in power. But by people themselves who have taken to the streets ensure that the political system and elected policy makers will work to realize their goals. These leaders have faced criticism, protests, and challenge to their power when they have failed to deliver represent their own people. This change is really about building political base social movements, indigenous movement, campesino movement." [9]

At a United Nations Security Council meeting on 14 February 2003, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin elicited rare and spontaneous applause when he urged council members [10] to give weapons inspectors and diplomacy more time. "No one can say today that the path of war would be shorter than the path of inspections. No one can claim either that it might lead to a safer, more just, and more stable world," he said. He infuriated many in the Bush administration, who considered his protestations inflexible and arrogant. [11], [12]

"It felt like a muted gesture of open revolt." reported BBC Diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall. [13]

Later, in November 2003, President George W. Bush appropriated a similar phrase, "global democratic revolution" for use as a slogan promoting his intent, and that of his corporate sponsors, to dominate (rule and exploit) the world, as part of his war on freedom and campaign for a second term.

By November 2005 it can be observed that "through their jaw-dropping levels of arrogance, incompetence, hypocrisy and deceit, today’s Republicans are doing an excellent job at hanging themselves." --David Michael Green, professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York

"Ever since the momentous Seattle demonstrations of 1999, the localized and scattered struggles of the people in different parts of the globe have grown into a mighty wave of anti-globalisation protests, targeting the destruction and havoc being wrought by the imperialist powers in the name of globalization." --mumbai resistance against imperialist globalisation and war 2004

In the European Union, "Exasperated by Washington's flouting of global trade rules, Brussels sought formal approval from the World Trade Organisation for sanctions that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Japan, China, Brazil, India and South Korea were among other countries lining up to join the formal request for punitive measures." [14]

In the United States, "as anger and fear wane, as they necessarily do, people will need to turn, one by one, to someone of wisdom, love, and courage. Someone who offers more than rebellion. Someone who offers a vision of what we can become as a nation and a world. ... Eventually, the next wave will become a tidal wave that overwhelms the limitations of the past. That wave can only be delayed, never stopped, for it is the movement of the human adventure into greater destinies. It is the march of evolution itself. And the only national political leader right now who can lead that wave is Dennis Kucinich."--Stephen Dinan for OpEdNews.Com

The Shared Capitalism Institute refers to "the worldwide emergence of center-left governments searching for "third way" strategies", and provides a vision for solution.

Yet importantly it is a Global movement. "This is the largest social movement in all of history, no one knows its scope, and how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye. What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The movement has three basic roots: the environmental and social justice movements, and indigenous cultures’ resistance to globalization—all of which are intertwining. It arises spontaneously from different economic sectors, cultures, regions, and cohorts, resulting in a global, classless, diverse, and embedded movement, spreading worldwide without exception. In a world grown too complex for constrictive ideologies, the very word movement may be too small, for it is the largest coming together of citizens in history." writes Paul Hawken for Orion Magazine in May/June 2007



SourceWatch Resources

External Resources

  • an extensive timeline of U.S. hegemony with links and references
  • Challenging Trade Liberalization in the Americas, September 2003, Kristin Sampson has a good list of additional resources.
  • The Towson Anti-War Coalition is a group of students, faculty, and community members who aim to bring to light the causes of such inequalities, economic disparities, and realities behind the global corporate agenda that are connected to war in a union of economic and military imperialism.
  • Latin America Solidarity Coalition
  • Indigenous Movements in Ecuador May 2003
  • Rebecca Solnit, Challenging Empire on the World Stage
  • Al Giordano,20 Stratfor Lies about Latin America, November 21, 2003. This is a response to a briefing on Latin American promulgated by Stratfor but not freely available on its website.
  • The official website of Sarayacu. "The purpose is to promote our work with art, music, education, natural resource management, tourism, and community development in general. Because of the current problems with the petrol companies, it also functions as a campaign site for the defense of our territory."
  • Benjamin Dangl, 10 December 2003, reviews the concurrent Ibero-American Presidential Summit and Alternative Social Forum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. (also at [15]}
    • "two opposing forces in Latin America's fierce polemic over the direction of its own social and economic progress were well defined. The twenty one presidents of Latin America were lodged in the most luxurious hotel in Bolivia to participate in the XIII Ibero-American Presidential Summit. Meanwhile, blocks away in the same city, activists, farmers, NGO's, professors and opposition leaders from all over Latin America set up their Alternative Social Forum in the city's Autonomous University of Gabriel Morenos. The politicians slept in $200 USD a night hotel rooms with shiny bathrooms, room service, armed guards and air conditioned conference halls to talk about trade agreements, poverty, social exclusion and national debt. Those at the university slept on the floor, shared bathrooms and food and discussed, in the heavy tropical heat, trade agreements, poverty, social exclusion and national debt. The slogan for both the Presidential Summit and the Social Forum was Another World is Possible."

News Items

  • 2004 Jan 12, LA Times, Richard Boudreaux, Bush Visits Neighbors No Longer So Friendly
    • Three years later, Bush is deeply unpopular in much of the region. Latin Americans view him as a distant neighbor at best -- often at odds with them over security and trade policies, and aloof from their worst economic and political crises.
      When he arrives in Monterrey today for his second Summit of the Americas, Bush will meet a Latin American leadership that has shifted to the left and grown increasingly assertive with Washington as people across the region lose faith in free markets.
    • A popular backlash is growing after a decade of U.S.-backed reforms that have sold off state enterprises and opened markets to foreign competition, benefiting corrupt officials and the wealthy but doing little for the 220 million people -- nearly half Latin America's population -- who are poor.
      Latin American leaders warn that the transformation of the 1980s, when military regimes long dominant in the region gave way to elected civilians, is at risk because people blame democracy for economic malaise. Violent popular uprisings and one military coup over the last five years have toppled elected leaders in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.
    • Indeed, a survey in November by Zogby International showed that 87% of the region's opinion-makers rated Bush negatively. Other polls show a surge of anti-U.S. sentiment for the first time in years, with 53% of Latin Americans recently surveyed by Latinobarometro, a Chilean polling firm, saying they hold a favorable view of the United States, down from 67% in 2000.
      These attitudes help explain the rise of left-leaning politicians in the region, including Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Nestor Kirchner in Argentina and Lucio Gutierrez in Ecuador -- all elected since Bush took office.
Retrieved from "https://dev.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_insurgency_for_change&oldid=309721"